I agree that paying for email does not increase privacy. I have a domain and pay for hosting and email on it, and the staff there can just as easily read it as

I agree that paying for email does not increase privacy. I have a domain and pay for hosting and email on it, and the staff there can just as easily read it as Google staff could read gmail. However, there is a difference from an organizational pressure perspective: with gmail, I'm not really Google's customer. With hosting, I am the host provider's customer. As a result, the nature of the business relationship is more clearly defined and they have less incentive to play fast-and-loose with the "rules". (Excluding legal mandates, unethical employees, etc. which are an equal exposure either way)